


Empty Houses

by brasspetal



Series: The Nameless Quiet [5]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, M/M, hand-holding, the calm before the storm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 07:45:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11180220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brasspetal/pseuds/brasspetal
Summary: The graves crowd beyond the town in morbid symmetry.





	Empty Houses

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read separately but I'd suggest reading the other parts if you want a bigger picture. Thank you for reading!

The graves crowd beyond the town in morbid symmetry.

There’s no burying the dead, they always end up crawling their way towards the sun.  Rick uses his hunting knife to dispatch a walker that’s flailing on the ground. It lost its legs, messily, some time ago.

The town he’s standing in, is half burned down. He knows something _bad_ happened here. The anguish of it, smelled of old seared flesh. Most of it is still standing though, like someone had changed their mind part of the way through.

He spots Daryl, stark against the burnt black of one of the many houses in this silent suburbia. It's been a month since they went scavenging alone together or spent much time together for that matter. Things accumulate in Alexandria and he stores things in the back of his mind. That’s when time passes the quickest. Daryl isn’t angry at him for it and maybe that makes him feel worse. Lori used to tell him _‘Speak’_ and sometimes he doesn’t notice that the words don’t make their way out of his mouth. He spends his time thinking rather than clucking his tongue. Daryl, however, revels in silence. He understood it the way Rick did.

Rick’s boots crunch by a pile of ash and bone. The skeletons projected agony. They experienced a violence no one should. He sees two, side by side with mouths pointed towards the sky. They had been holding one another when the end came for them. He stands there for too long, imagining faces when there are none. He swallows, blinking away the ghosts. It begins to dawn on him that maybe this is Alexandria’s future.

He looks up to see that Daryl had disappeared. He didn’t like being alone out here. He follows where he thinks Daryl journeyed to and is relieved to see him standing by broken television. His crossbow is comfortably resting in his hands as he examines what’s left.

“This was more recent than I would like.” Rick says and Daryl casually kicks a pile of crumbling rubble.

“This ain’t anythin’ new.” Daryl shrugs and stands by a blown-out window.

“It’s too close to home. Alexandria is ten miles away.”

“We best pray then.” Daryl comments, sardonically. There’s an undercurrent of tension, choking the room and Rick thinks maybe he’s angrier than he had initially thought.

“You have somethin’ to say?” Rick questions and Daryl slides his eyes over his. They stand there in heated silence before Daryl moves to stand in front of him, his crossbow held down towards the floor.

“There ain’t no _home_ for us. Alexandria’s a lie. That’s how it was supposed to be, not how it is.”

Daryl’s reply shakes him up, makes him step back as if he’s been punched, he might as well have been.

“You think I live in a fantasy? I’m trying to keep us safe.” Rick answers and he can’t count how many times he’s said it. To Shane, to Lori, to everyone in the goddamn universe.

“You think I don’t get that? Gettin’ too comfortable anywhere is a death sentence.” Daryl says and even if the anger still raged beneath, there’s an openness to his features that he only ever has with Rick. “There’s always some asshole, burnin’ up people.” Daryl continues. He shuffles his feet in the ash and leans against the wall.

“What do we do then? Just leave? I can’t do that to them again.” Rick says and turns towards the doorway, it’s oddly bright outside. The light is an eerie rusted backdrop.

“There’s a reason why houses stay empty is all.” Those words of Daryl’s bounce around the room, echoing and relentless.

That’s the last they speak for some time. They aimlessly scour the house they both know has nothing of value. It served as a reminder. That’s the purpose of it. Normalcy is just as unattainable as the stars above.

There’s no crows here, nothing to caw at them or mock them from above. It’s just dead silent, even the wind seems afraid to howl. All these lost places. Who will remember them? Rick tries to collect it all but after a while things start to blend together. One ruined town after another and then he can’t remember what had terrified him in the first place.

“You wanna head back?” Rick calls to Daryl. _You wanna run away?_

Daryl gives him a short nod.

When they walk back to Alexandria, away from that tomb, Rick bumps Daryl’s wrist with his. It’s a small gesture that doesn’t go unnoticed. Daryl reaches out and takes his hand in his. Their fingers interlace and Rick feels heady.

“I can’t do this without you.” Rick says, softly and his words are taken up into the wind. Thunder rumbles above the trees. There’s static in the air, before a lightning strike.

“I ain’t goin’ nowhere. We goin’ to be a couple of old assholes trollin’ these roads.”

Rick feels himself smile, it had been a while. Daryl gives him a small one back. It’s easier than it should be, to just forget what’s behind them. It’s the reminders. It’s Daryl that keeps him sharp, aware and alive.

Rick Grimes knows in another life, one Daryl didn’t come walking into, he’d have been a corpse long ago. That wasn’t something he’d ever be able to repay but Daryl wasn’t about debts or what’s owed. He just _was_. He exists and Rick can breathe. Is it really that simple? Maybe so.

Rick stops them on the road, and releases their hands, the warmth falling away from them. Daryl watches him curiously.

“You—“ Rick begins but Daryl interrupts, “I know.”

Of course he does. He’d never have to speak a word again. Rick nods once and looks out towards the storm that’s headed their way. It looked like a mean one, one they’d need shelter for. There’s a buzzing inside him like a faulty light bulb. He wasn’t ready to head back yet but then again, he never was.

Daryl starts walking first and he follows him all the way back to complacency.


End file.
